Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the work of many fewer scholars meeting at a single place and time and augmented by a few additional contributions, proposes a more coherent model of the means by which the Roman world came to incorporate large numbers of barbarians. It aims to break down old stereotypes about the cultural and social segregation of Roman and barbarian populations. Cristiana Sogno argues that what have been normally read as genuine battles between Romans and Alamanni may have been closer to staged military skirmishes to impress a distinguished Roman aristocrat unfamiliar with operations in the field. Interactions with neighboring barbarian populations living in frontier zones occurred where barbarians and Romans looked much the same. Past scholarship hash paid inordinate amount of attention to the process of "Romanization" whereby barbarian peoples adopted elements of Roman culture.